Life around a tree house
by In2lalaland
Summary: Two boys and their lives around a house above the ground. 2x5 AU A present for kurokoneko13 13


Warning: Unbetad. If someone would feel like fixing it up a bit I would be very happy.

This is a welcome back present for kurokoneko13_13 who have been missed while she was gone. (Look up her story Windows To The Soul, it's awesome) I made her something sugary sweet to make her smile.

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Life around a tree house.

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Building a three house was something Duo had wanted to do forever. Ever since his father had told him about the tree house that he and his friends had built when they were kids, Duo wanted to do it too.

The only problem was that he had no one to help him. His parents worked all day around the farm and didn't have time for tree houses and his brother was off to college and even when he was home he rarely wanted to play with Duo.

Summer holidays were fun but lonely.

There were no other kids around and Duo always had to play on his own. Building a tree house was going to be the perfect way to spend his summer, even if he had to do it by himself. Solo had said that he was stupid and that he couldn't do it. That he was going to fall down and crack his head open.

But he wasn't going to fall. He wasn't a little kid. He was seven, not five! And he wasn't stupid. He went to school and everything.

He could build a tree house on his own, he was going to show Solo who the stupid one was.

The floor and four corner poles had already been there when he started. They were a bit old and had started to rot on some places, but it wasn't like it was going to fall down or anything. At least he thought they wouldn't. He had starting on one of the walls. It was just that he couldn't hold the planks in place at the same time as he hammered the nails in. Building a tree house alone wasn't easy but Duo was determined.

Taking the plank in his right hand he put it in position. Carefully he exchanged hands and tried to get a hold of the hammer. The plank slipped and fell. Damn it, it kept doing that.

With a sigh he glanced down at his new watch, checking the time.

His mother wanted him back home at four to meet the new neighbors who were moving into Johnson's old house across the field. Duo had seen one of them at a distance when he was out searching for boards earlier that day. The guy had looked old, like grandparents kind of old. It had been a great disappointment, he had been hoping that they would have children so that he would have someone to play with. Someone who could hold up a plank.

His watch told him that he had another half an hour before he had to leave.

With much hazard he managed to hold the plank up with his elbow while he pounded the nail in. In the end it was a bit crocked but it was going to have to do.

"One done, a lot to go." Duo mumbled to himself, echoing what his father always said when he washed pots. His father hated when he had to wash pots.

He reluctantly put the hammer down when it was time to leave. He didn't want to sit around at home with his parents and old people when he could be working on his tree house.

He took his time as he strolled home, stopping every now and then to look at some ants or to search for sticks. But no matter how much he tried to drag his feet he was soon home again. He heard their voices when he climbed up on the porch. The new neighbors were standing in the hallway and Duo curiously looked through the screen door.

They had a kid! A _boy_, not a boring girl.

Duo leaned against the doorway as he peaked inside the house, trying to get a better look at the boy hiding behind the old woman.

"And this is Duo." His mother suddenly spoke up, bringing everyone's attention over to him.

Duo slowly pushed the door open and stepped into the room as his mother motioned him over.

The old woman smiled brightly down at him. "Hallo dear, how old are you?"

"Seven." Duo responded quietly through the gap where his front teeth used to be.

"Oh, the same age as Wufei." The old woman gave the boy next to her a small shove forward.

"Duo, why won't you show Wufei around a bit?" His father said. "Maybe you can show him your tree house."

Duo nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. Come on." He opened the screen door and waved at the other boy to follow him.

The other boy was a bit shorter than him with kind of dark skin and a Spiderman t-shirt. Duo also had a Spiderman t-shirt at home, but his was blue, not red like Wufei's.

"Your parents are kind of old." Duo said as he led the other boy over the yard.

"They're not my parents. They're my grandparents, I just live with them anyway." Wufei told him, kicking a dry twig out of his way.

"Oh. My grandparents live on the other side of the forest." Duo said as he climbed over the gate to the field. "They live on a farm too but they don't have cows anymore, just chickens and a goat that sleeps all the time."

Wufei seemed to hesitate before following him over the gate, his eyes looking over towards the herd of cows standing further away.

"Come on." Duo urged him on.

Wufei jumped off the gate and ran to catch up. "Last one to the other side is a hooker!" He called as he passed him.

"Hey!" Duo shouted in protest as he too started running. He didn't know what a hooker was but he wasn't going to be one.

The field was wide and by the time the two of them reached the other side they were both panting and laughing over their tries not to step in cow dropping.

"We're almost there now." Duo said when he got his breath back.

Wufei followed him closely as they walked down the thin forest trail.

"There it is." Duo said proudly, pointing up at the big tree. "Have you built a tree house before?"

The other boy shook his head, staring up at the platform up in the tree. "It's not going to fall down, right?"

"Nah." Duo said confidently.

"It's really high." Wufei remarked, pulling a bit at the edge of his red t-shirt.

"It's not that high." Duo gave him a cocky look. "You're not scared are you?"

Wufei frowned. "No."

"I think you're scared." Duo teased, climbing up the first step on the ladder that was nailed to the trunk.

"I'm not!" Wufei protested with a glare.

"Prove it." Duo called back as he started climbing up the steps a lot faster then he usually did.

When he got up on the platform he turned and looked down.

Wufei had climbed up the first couple of steps and were slowly making his way up the rest of them.

"You're almost up." Duo called back in encouragement.

It took him a while but soon Wufei climbed up next to him, looking around what was going to be the greatest tree house in the world.

"It's like a secret club house." Wufei said, sounding impressed.

"Yeah!" Duo agreed. "We should have rules and stuff."

Wufei nodded his agreement. "No girls allowed." He suggested.

"No girls." Duo grinned, his new friend had the best ideas. "Girls are gross."

"Yeah, my friend Heero from back home had this girl who followed him around everywhere, trying to kiss him and stuff."

Duo wrinkled his nose. "Ewwww."

"Have you ever kissed anyone?" Wufei asked, rearranging his legs more comfortably.

Duo blushed and for a second he thought about claiming that he had kissed hundreds of girls but instead he shook his head.

"You want to?"

He shrugged. There wasn't like there were a lot of girls around and all the girls at school were dumb and strange, except Hilde who was cool. But Duo really didn't want to kiss her. Besides, she would probably punch him in the nose if he tried.

In the corner of his eye he saw Wufei move closer.

"Well?" Wufei questioned.

Duo didn't know what to say. He knew you were supposed to want to kiss girls and stuff like that. His brother was always talking about different girls that he had "boned." Duo wasn't sure what that was, but he was pretty sure that it had something to do with kissing. He didn't know if he wanted to kiss any girls. They were weird and only wanted to play boring things with dolls and stuff. The thought of kissing any of the girls he knew made him feel icky.

"Don't know'" He mumbled pushing some spilled nails into a pile in front of him.

Wufei bit his lip in thought. "You can kiss me if you like."

Duo wrinkled his nose. "But you're a boy."

"So?"

"You're not supposed to kiss boys, just girls."

"Says who?"

Duo opened his mouth to respond but he didn't really have a good answer. No one had ever told him that he couldn't.

"Everyone knows that." He stated.

"Are you scared?" Wufei teased. "I think you're scared."

"I'm not!" Duo huffed. "I just don't want to."

"Chicken." Wufei taunted.

"Shut up, I'm not!"

Wufei started making cackling noses but Duo cut him off by leaning forward to press their lips together.

It wasn't as gross as he thought it would be. This close Wufei smelled spicy, like the tacos his mother made sometimes. It was nice.

"See, I'm not scared." Duo stated as he sat back up.

Wufei didn't respond, he just curled a leg up against his chest with his eyes on the floor.

They sat quietly for a moment before Duo collected the nails in his hand and got up. "You do you want to hold the plank or hit with the hammer?"

Wufei looked up at him and over to the crocked plank that Duo had managed to put up. "I'll hold it."

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The annoyance that Duo had felt at first was quickly turning into fear. He had been looking all over for his best friend but Wufei couldn't be found anywhere. He had searched both their houses, the barn, the sheds, everywhere he could think of. Still no Wufei.

Eric Halley was a big bully, everyone knew that. There was no reason to run away just because Eric was running his mouth about things he didn't get.

He hoped that Wufei wasn't going to believe Eric, he had told him that he shouldn't listen to him. But maybe Wufei hadn't listened to him, maybe he really thought that Duo…

In frustration Duo kicked his bike over, feeling no satisfaction as the rusty old thing fell over on the dirt road.

This was so stupid!

They were best friend, they had always been best friends.

It couldn't change just because Eric was a stupid idiot who liked to talk shit about everyone.

Duo sank down in the grass at the edge of the road, staring down into the water filled ditch.

So Eric might have had a little bit of truth in his words, but it wasn't anyone knew that for sure. There were no reason for _Wufei_ to believe that.

It was just last year that Duo had started to realize that he might not be totally normal, that what he felt for his best friend wasn't how you should feel about a friend. A male friend especially.

It was just that Wufei was so nice and smart… and pretty. He was far prettier than any of the girls.

At first it hadn't been all that fun to realize that he was… like that. But then he kind of got used to it. It wasn't like people at school didn't already think that he was kind of weird. He was too loud, his clothes were never new and they always made fun of his hair.

Wufei was the greatest friend ever because he had grown out his hair too. It wasn't as long as his but that pony tail still meant a lot.

People made fun of Wufei too. They thought he was too quiet, too smart and different looking. But all those things were what made Duo love him so much. Wufei always thought things through before speaking. He never filled the air with worthless babble, he never said stupid things that ended up hurting people even when you didn't mean too. And he was so smart, like he knew everything and could solve any problem he wanted. He would help Duo with his homework and never _ever_ made him feel stupid because he couldn't figure some things out on his own.

And Duo thought he was beautiful.

Whenever he had the chance he would just looked at his friend, taking in everything. The shape of his face, his eyes, his hands and… everything that was hidden by clothes most of the time.

It wasn't fair that Eric could just go around and say those things and make Wufei believe him.

And now he couldn't even find him.

He looked over at the blue dot on the other side of the field that was Wufei's house and then over to the roof of his house that he could barely see over the lilac bushes. He had been biking all over trying to think of places where Wufei could be without finding him. _Why couldn't he find him_?

With a sigh he looked back down into the dirty water, remembering how he and Wufei used to catch tadpoles and put them in a big glass jar out in the barn. They had watched them every day until they turned into frogs.

He tipped over in the grass, staring up at the blue, cloud free sky. Why did everything have to change and be all complicated? Why couldn't things be easy like back when they were kids and built their tree house?

He paused in thought. Sitting up quickly his eyes found the forest on the other side of the field. Could he be in the tree house? It couldn't hurt to search, he had been everywhere else.

Pulling his bike to the side of the road he jumped over the ditch and started walking through the wheat straws. He knew that he shouldn't walk through the fields but this was an emergency. He had to find Wufei.

As he reached the forest and the trail he knew was going to be there he started running. It didn't take long before he reached the tree with the huge tree house high up there. They had spent years building it until it got so big that his father had told them that they had to stop or the whole thing was going to fall down.

They hadn't spent as much time up there since then. It wasn't as fun when you couldn't plan and build like you wanted to. Besides, as Solo had told them, only little kids played in tree houses. And they weren't little kids! They were fourteen, or at least Wufei was since his own birthday was in freaking December, which was really lame.

He paused at the foot of the tree, looking up the ladder that was nailed to the trunk. He wondered if Wufei remembered the time when Duo had kissed him in that tree house.

Carefully he started to climb, a bit scared that it wasn't going to handle his weight. "Wu?" He called out but he got no responds so he kept climbing. He hopped the whole house wasn't going to fall down on him

Impatiently he pushed the hatch in the middle of the floor open and it hit the wooden planks with a slam.

The first thing he noticed as he came up was a ton of dirt all over the place. You could really tell that they hadn't been there in a while.

Then his eyes fell on Wufei. He was sitting curled up in the corner, his face hidden in his raised knees.

He didn't make a sound as Duo climbed up and crawled over to him. There were no reason to try to get up on his feet, the ceiling was too low.

"Hey… Wu, are you okay?"

Wufei didn't respond and he couldn't see his face. His hair was out and hanging all over the place. It wasn't right, Wufei hated it when his hair got in his face, he _always_ had it in a pony tail.

Duo shifted closer but when Wufei tensed up and leaned away from him, he stopped.

Nervously he liked his lips. He didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to fix this. "Eric always talks shit." He started weakly. "It's nothing new."

Wufei didn't respond, didn't move.

Duo knew what he should say, that much was obvious. But he had once, _years ago_, promised Wufei that he would never lie to him. And he hadn't! He had never lied to his best friend. But maybe this time he should. He should tell him that Eric was the one who lied and that he wasn't like that, he wasn't those things that Eric said he was.

But the words got stuck in his throat. He couldn't say them.

"Come on Wu, don't listen to him." Duo pleaded. "He's just a stupid jerk and no one is going to believe him anyway."

For the first time, Wufei looked up. He was crying.

Duo felt his chest contract. He felt his own eyes tear up at the sight. "It's ok, I swear. Just don't listen to him." Duo just wanted to wrap his arms around him but because of that stupid Eric he couldn't, because now hugs suddenly meant something else.

Wufei hid his face in his knees again and then his shoulders started shaking as he cried silently.

Duo couldn't stop himself, he just leaped over to his friend and wrapped his arms around him. Wufei tried to get away but Duo just held him tighter until his friend stopped fighting and hugged him back.

"It's ok, it doesn't matter, it's no big deal, he's an idiot, it's ok."

They held on to each other, desperate hands clinging. Stupid Eric. The next time he saw him, Duo was going to punch him in the face for this, no matter how much bigger he was. The bastard deserved it for putting them thought this.

Duo didn't loosen his hold until he felt Wufei let go and pull back.

Sitting next to each other on the dirty wooden floor, Wufei looked up at him. His eyes were still red and he had tear tracks down his cheeks. But he didn't look so sad anymore, he looked almost determined. "It doesn't matter." Wufei stated confidently and Duo felt his whole body relax at the words.

"Exactly."

"It doesn't change anything… does it?" Wufei gave him a hesitant look and Duo hurried to reassure him.

"No! Of course not, nothing changes."

"It's just one thing first, just one thing and then we never have to talk about it again, it never happened. Okay?"

Duo was really nervous to what his friend wanted but he could do nothing but nod his agreement. He just hopped that Wufei didn't want to know any details because just thinking about telling him about all the things that had been going through his mind lately was terrifying, not to mention embarrassing.

Wufei seemed to hesitate for a moment, than he rearranged his legs, getting up on his knees. Duo watched him curiously as Wufei half walked, half stumbled up to him and stopped right in front of him.

"Nothing changes?" Wufei asked softly.

Duo suddenly had a feeling that they weren't talking about the same thing but he nodded anyway.

The next second, Wufei was leaning forward and then their lips meet.

Duo froze, unable to wrap his mind around what just happened but when Wufei started to move back he followed. Their lips meet again, slowly moving against each other.

His eyes meet Wufei's. His friend was smiling, a huge happy grin like he had gotten everything he had ever wanted.

Duo decided that he wasn't going to punch Eric in the face after all.

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"Thank god we had time to make sure it was still stable." Wufei whispered from where he was hunched down next to him.

Duo nodded as they watched through the thick bush as their kids dragged a long plank up the tree.

They had made sure to prepare their old tree house for its new owners. The extra rooms and towers they had built over the years had been torn down, leaving only the old platform and four corner poles.

They lingered there for a while to make sure that the kids were going to be okay before they quietly snuck away. The both of them knew the land like the back of their hand and it didn't take long before they were back on the familiar trail leading to Duo's parent's old house.

"We should take a look at that fence later." Wufei said thoughtfully as they jumped over a ditch and ended up on the dirt road.

Duo looked over at the wooded fence on the other side of the road that he had climbed over so many times over the years to get to Wufei's house. "Yeah, probably. It's getting old."

Wufei made an agreeing noise as he took his hand. Together they strolled back to the house Duo's parents had more or less forced upon them when they had gotten too old to take care of it themselves.

"You think they'll find the carvings?" Duo asked with a smile as he paused to look into their mailbox. A couple of bills and a post card from Solo were fished up before he let the lid fall back with a metallic clang.

Wufei shrugged, taking a look at the colorful postcard as Duo held it up before him. "Probably, it wasn't like we were trying to hide it."

Duo grinned and leaned over to kiss his husband.

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Further up the tree from where three children were trying to put up a wall, a heart had been carved into the bark together with two names and one word. Forever.

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The End.

Did the sweetness kill you? Leave me a word and let me know would you :)


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